BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                          SB 482 (Kehoe)
          
          Hearing Date: 05/16/2011        Amended: 04/25/2011
          Consultant: Brendan McCarthy    Policy Vote: Health 6-3, EQ 5-1
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          ____
          BILL SUMMARY: SB 482 transfers authority over water quality 
          monitoring at beaches from the Department of Public Health to 
          the State Water Resources Control Board.
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          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2011-12      2012-13       2013-14     Fund
           
          Additional testing     $1,095     $2,190      $2,190    Special 
          *

          * Waste Discharge Permit Fund.
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          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the 
          Suspense File. 

          Under current law, the Department of Public Health has adopted 
          regulations establishing minimum standards for water quality off 
          public beaches, including requirements for testing, 
          notification, and beach closures. Local health officers are 
          required to implement the beach water monitoring program when 
          funding is provided by the state and to report information about 
          beach closures to the State Water Resources Control Board. 
          Current law requires local health officers to test the water off 
          public beaches weekly from April 1st to October 1st.

          Over the last several years, the State Water Resources Control 
          Board has provided $1 million per year to the Department of 
          Public Health and the Department of Public Health also received 
          about $650,000 per year in federal funds for beach monitoring, 
          all of which is passed along to local health officers. The 
          amount of funding provided to local governments under the 
          program is based on initial requests by local governments when 
          the program was first implemented. According to the State Water 








          SB 482 (Kehoe)
          Page 1


          Resources Control Board, some counties did not initially ask for 
          enough funding to fully cover their costs.

          SB 482 moves the authority over beach water quality monitoring 
          and reporting from the Department of Public Health to the State 
          Water Resources Control Board. The bill also requires year-round 
          testing of beach water quality. 

          The State Water Resources Control Board indicates any costs to 
          oversee the existing regulations, including publishing water 
          quality data received from local officials, can be accommodated 
          within existing resources. 

          The State Water Resources Control Board intends to increase 
          funding to some counties, so that all counties receive enough 
          funding to fully cover their costs. The additional cost to fully 
          fund all county efforts and implement year-round testing is 
          estimated to be about $2.2 million per year.